Pakistan executes 5 ‘terrorists’ at prison in northwest

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s military says authorities have hanged five “hardcore terrorists” after they were found guilty of carrying out attacks in the country.

A military statement says the executions were carried out on Wednesday at a prison in the northwest.

It says the convicts belonged to the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The executions came two months after military courts were shut down in Pakistan following the expiration of their two-year constitutional mandate.

The courts were set up after a December 2014 Taliban attack on a school in the northwest killed 150 people, mostly children.

The attack also prompted Pakistan to lift its moratorium on the death penalty. Since then, Pakistan has executed over 400 people. Most of those executed were not linked to terrorism-related cases.